Boards

i saw a friend from school (well, i say friend from school, but at school he was a psycho bastard who put pins through his nose just for th sake of it and headbutted a hole in a wall) yesterday, and despite being exactly the sort of student that would be told theyre useless throughout school - and not even the arty, gonnamakeitofftheirtalent type - hes now 23 and on £28.5k salary as the manager of a warehouse or something.

I know that in quite a few professions though, you can only go so far without qualifications, no matter how good/experienced you are. I suppose that doesn't stop you from getting a bloody decent wage still though.

and 28k# isn't shit to what you can (and will?) make if you set your mind to it.

Money isn't the most important thing in this world...but it's in the top 5, eh?

As a matter of statistics, education/$ is not at all tenuous. The average high school grad earns (something like) $150,000 more over his lifetime than a non-grad. A college grad earns way more than a high school grad, and a graduate student earns more yet. You know that.

What you're really saying, is how come this schleb is making more than I am? Well, said schleb-rock started a little earlier than you. Be patient. When his fifty he'll still be making 28k# and you'll be sipping mai-tai's in Majorca.

At the council department that I work in, we have a lot of tradesmen who are on high qualifying salaries - electricians can demand 26k per year, for example. But their earnings potential never rises - even if they get supervisory status it's only a 3k honourarium, and supervisors get to do less overtime anyway.

Compare this to officerial and divisional management salaries (mostly only open to graduates) - you may not get into those positions until you're 30-40 but it's here that education makes a difference.

as more an more people get degrees there is less and less 'advantage' to having one. people still need workers on tills and companies still need entry level wages. i'd imagine that as we go further and further back, the link between education level and wages will have been stronger.

i work in financial services, in a finance team. Everyone is under 40. The only one of us without a degree is the head of the department. but he is quite rbight, and had great people skills, so it makes sense.

i know a lot of people who even though they dont have a degree are generally more ambitious and have good people skills to get on in life. You could say their wage never rises but you'd be suprised the amount of people who run their own business and dont really need a degree

and got a degree but the job i do now i could have been doing if i signed on up til the age of 23 and then just went and got the same job! hell when i came out of uni, i was a bin man for a few months!!

earning about 27-29k a yr now but i just got a bit lucky and behaved myself which gave me a lot better chances in terms of promotion